It's official: Bryant-Denny will be the nation's fifth-largest stadium...

If it seems like I've been writing the same story over and over on stadium expansion, it's because I have been. Kinda. Each step along the way requires approval. But earlier today in a Alabama System Board of Trustees meeting in Birmingham, while I was driving back from Nashville, the expansion of Bryant-Denny Stadium received its final OK.

The trustees voted unanimously and without discussion to give the final approval for South end zone expansion of the stadium. Remember earlier in the week, Mal Moore requested this approval. And he got it.

Moore said this week that he expects construction to begin as soon as the university settles on a construction company, which should happen quickly. He also expects it to be finished by the 2010 opener.

So, now Alabama, with 101,000 seats, will have the nation's fifth-largest stadium, behind Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, and Tennessee.